Meaningless bowls and big basketball games

Friday

Dec 21, 2012 at 6:38 PM

Dennis Miller

The sports weekend is a busy one with several meaningless bowl games, a yearly college basketball rivalry, the final home game of the season for the Chiefs, and lots more. Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first.

The Kansas City Chiefs play their final home game of the NFL season on Sunday when they play and probably lose to the Indianapolis Colts. The only interesting part of this game will be a chance to see Andrew Luck the overall 1 pick in last April’s NFL draft continue his rookie season as quarterback for the Colts. Luck has struggled at times but in my opinion has actually done very well for a rookie quarterback dealing with a team in transition for the Peyton Manning era to the next phase in their franchise. Colts fans should feel some level of optimism as Luck has certainly performed adequately in his rookie campaign.

The St. Louis Rams head to Tampa Bay to play to Buccaneers in a game that is definitely winnable for the Rams. The Rams play the resurgent Seatle Seahawks next week so if the Rams want to get another victory in this year they probably need to do it Sunday.

In College basketball, the Missouri Tiger play their annual “Braggin Rights” game against the Fighting Ilini of Illinois in St. Louis on Saturday evening. I can’t recall this game ever being played on a Saturday but I’m sure that’s what ESPN wanted and that’s what they got. As I mentioned earlier in the week. Illinois is undefeated so far this year and in my opinion may have a little more talent than the Tigers do right now. The Tigers will have to play their best basketball of the year to beat Illinois who has also played a little tougher non conference schedule than the Tigers have. The game is winnable for Missouri but it is going to take maximum effort from everybody if they are going to win.

The Truman State men’s and women’s basketball teams are both off enjoying life and not communicating with the coach or doing any basketball related activities to comply with the NCAA. They will resume practice after December 27.

Both KHS basketball teams will continue participating in the NCMC Shoot Out in Trenton over the next several days with the girls having already played and won.

I was interested to learn the annual high school football game between Brookfield and Marceline won the best high school football rivalry in the country in voting conducted by USA Today. Both schools did an excellent job of promoting themselves and getting the word out about the vote and I’m sure that next year’s game will have even more luster than it normally does. It’s a credit to both communities and teams they were able to win the vote.

We plan to be back on Monday with a look back at the weekend’s sports action and a look ahead at what will be a relatively quiet couple of days until after the Christmas holiday is over when there will be a slew of important bowl games as well as the final weekend of the NFL season and college basketball gets back in gear as well. Thanks as always for supporting all the blogs on this site and remember, your comments are always welcome.Have a great weekend!